Why Every Business, Big or Small, Needs a Document Shredding Strategy?
Shredding is increasingly part of everyday operations for most businesses. Properly disposing of confidential information in document form is not just good practice but also a legal requirement for many organisations today. While there is plenty of focus on protecting digital data through firewalls etc. Actually, ensuring that you have similar processes in place to avoid a physical data breach is just as essential. The very best way to do that is with a robust shredding strategy.
Why does every business need a document shredding strategy?
- To ensure that intellectual property is being properly protected. IP rights have a key role to play in the global economy and are essential for most businesses today. Protecting them should be an integral part of any document shredding strategy. In practice that will mean ensuring that any information that could be used by a competitor is destroyed before it could end up in the wrong hands.
- Better use of space and reducing costs. There is no doubt that physical documents and files take up a lot of space. So, too, does the shredding equipment that you might use to handle your shredding burden in-house. The best approach for any document shredding strategy is to ensure that shredding is being regularly handled by an external provider, freeing up the maximum possible space on the premises at all times.
- Tightening up security. There are serious consequences for a data breach today - and this is the fastest way to lose the trust of your clients, customers, and employees. So, it’s vital that security is as tight as possible in any business, big or small - and that means regularly shredding documents that are no longer required. The best possible approach is an on-site shredding provider able to destroy documents without them having to leave the premises.
- Improving productivity. If your current document shredding strategy involves employees doing the shredding work, then you’re negatively impacting productivity at your firm for no good reasons. It takes time to shred documents and office shredders don’t always do a great job. Working with a shredding provider is much more reliable and means your employees can actually spend their time doing the work that you contracted them for, instead of manual tasks.
- Ensuring legal compliance. There are just no excuses for not ensuring safe document destruction today - the GDPR sets a high bar for compliance and equally high fines for those that don’t take the trouble to put its regulations in place. It’s simply not worth the risk of making data in documents vulnerable, given the financial consequences that could follow if you do.
- Minimising carbon footprint. For companies with a green agenda, a document shredding strategy can introduce new opportunities to minimise carbon footprint. Documents that are shredded go for recycling afterwards, which means less waste ends up in landfills.
These are some of the reasons why every business, big or small, needs a document shredding strategy.
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